TAVARES, Fla.—The woman accused of brutally torturing and murdering her boyfriend’s daughter appeared in court Thursday.
Only Inside Lake was in the courtroom as Circuit Judge Heidi Davis questioned Tyshael Martin, 35, about retaining an attorney. Martin, who still does not have an attorney of record, more than two months after her arrest, told Davis she has retained Sean Landers, but he has not filed a notice of appearance yet due to him being out of town.
Assistant State Attorney Thomas Wieczorek asked the court to keep Martin’s case on the docket for November for both a pre-trial conference to ensure she has retained an attorney, and a plea negotiation conference. He also asked the record reflect the state filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty in Martin’s case.
“Oct. 8, the same date that notice was filed with the court, defendant Martin was also personally served with that notice at the Lake County Jail,” Wieczorek said.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Martin is accused of killing 9-year-old Jamaria “Mari” Sessions in June after abusing and torturing her for nearly eight months after her father, Lojuan Sessions, picked her up from school in October 2023. Sessions took Jamaria and her little sister, Jaliah, from school that day without permission or notice to the girls’ grandmother Althea Chenault. Chenault had been helping care for the girls throughout their mother, Tadrina Dort’s fight against leukemia, and after her death from congestive heart failure in 2022. Chenault is also listed as Jamaria’s next of kin in Martin’s case and Martin was ordered not to have any contact with Chenault at an earlier court appearance.
Chenault and her son, Trane Chenault and daughter, Laquanda Beacham, were in attendance for Thursday’s hearing and the family plans to attend each time Martin or Sessions appears in court.
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